![]() ![]() ![]() "The timing here is clear: The declines take place as the world’s banks increased interest rates and the specter of recession was everywhere in the press,” Unity CEO John Riccitiello said on an earnings call this month. (Many mobile games allow players to earn digital currency by watching ads prompting them to install competing games.)Īdvertisers are also simply spending less. game market.Īdditionally, the digital advertising market on which many mobile games rely for revenue is also having a tough year, in part because Apple's iOS privacy changes have made it more difficult to track the effectiveness of the install ads through which many mobile developers both acquire new users and also earn money from other app makers. "Some of the drivers of the decline include the return of experiential spending, higher prices in everyday spending categories such as food and fuel, the uncertain supply of video game console hardware and certain accessories such as gamepads, and a lighter release slate of games, among others," explained NPD game director Mat Piscatella back in July, when NPD forecast a 8.7% decline in the U.S. A number of high-profile console and PC games have also suffered from delays this year, setting up a return to growth in 2023. For one, consumers are spending less on gaming due to inflation increasing the price of everyday goods. ![]() mobile game revenue will surpass 2021 levels, worsening headwinds have firmly shifted the conversation away from the question of by how much.”Ī confluence of factors has created a particularly difficult time for game developers, and not just mobile ones. “While there is still a decent chance this year’s U.S. continues to decline as consumers contend with both economic uncertainties and a new post-pandemic normal,” said Sensor Tower gaming insights lead Dennis Yeh last week. But this year's decline marks a surprising downturn for mobile. Mobile gaming has typically offset the losses in console and PC gaming and has been the largest and fastest-growing sector in the industry for years. That includes spending hundreds of millions of dollars more on exclusive games, free game promotions and other publishing incentives to convince developers to release games on its store and even through Epic's own publishing label. In emails and documents revealed as part of its lawsuit against Apple, Epic has put in place a multi-year plan, dubbed "Project Moonshot," to grow the Epic Game Store to be larger than Steam and to account for half or more of all PC game revenue by 2024. That's helped bring big publishers back to Steam, including Microsoft, EA and Ubisoft.Įpic shows no signs of slowing down its fight for the PC crown. Valve, meanwhile, introduced a variable revenue share for Steam a month before the Epic Game Store launch that reduces the cut it takes as developers sell more games, in a bid to keep big game makers from pulling their libraries and going elsewhere. Microsoft has since followed Epic in reducing its cut for games sold through the Microsoft Store on Windows. Epic now has more than 650 games and apps in its store and through its aggressive discounting and free games program has attracted tens of millions of people, despite early backlash from the PC gaming community over Epic's use of exclusivity contracts. The strategy has worked, though it has cost Epic a fortune in the process. When Epic launched its store in 2018, it dropped its cut to 12% to attract more game makers and try and shift the revenue sharing status quo. While the PC isn't a locked-down ecosystem quite like iOS, Valve's Steam remains the dominant distribution platform for PC games, and Valve's 30% commission has been in place for nearly two decades. The fight between Epic and Valve in many ways mirrors the Fortnite creator's fight with other store owners like Apple and Google. Still, Epic's growth is significant for the game industry. If Epic is ever to surpass Steam, it will either take a massive change in strategy to accelerate its growth or years of steady investment to come close to Valve's user base. And those figures still pale in comparison to the giant of the space: Valve said in its 2020 review that Steam peaked at more than 120 million monthly active users last year, which marked a record for the platform. But its growth is also slowing considerably in January of this year, Epic said it had 56 million monthly active users by the end of 2020. That means the store has nearly doubled since 2019, when Epic said it had 32 million users. Epic's Game Store now has 58 million monthly active users, the company announced on Thursday as part of an announcement on its new self-publishing tools. ![]()
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